Victorino Comments Causing a Stir

Shane Victorino stopped short of calling the fans frontrunner after last night’s 7-5 loss to the Braves. It was a simple case of venting frustration to the media.

Victorino said, “I’m hearing fans yelling, ‘Victorino, you’re horrible; you stink.’ Aw, right. Like they forget what happened the last 2 years. That frustrates me even more . . . You hear things like that, it eats at you. I mean Jimmy used that word. I’m not going to use it. But you know what I’m talking about.”

His statement is stained with distress. Clearly Victorino is smarting due to his lack of production this year. His 14 homers are a mirage – he isn’t coming through in the clutch and the fans realize it. The centerfielder is being pinpointed by the faithful because he is one of several Phillies that is missing that flair and swagger, something they used to carry in excess.

Chalk this up to a frustrating night, and on a larger scale, a rough few months. Shane should have chosen his words a little more carefully, for sure. Is “frontrunner” too harsh? Probably. Fans pay good money to see a prime product placed on the field. Right now, this product is damaged.

Victorino is wrong when it comes to spitting his venom at those who come to support the club. The crowd gets on him because they want more from him, it’s that simple. On the other hand, it’s understandable that Vic is frustrated. He knows he isn’t hitting and the mounting pressure got to him for one night.

ChuckN, actually glad to hear you say that. I assume this message board will be littered with people hating on it. I think he does care. At the same time, I think it was a mistake in saying something like that.

Pat, he’s human. He had reporters all over him. He burst out a little. You cannot expect perfect behavior from a ballplayer. They are human and I am surprised more players haven’t vented. I personally appreciate his passion

I totally understand how frustrated they all must be but don’t start talking about forgetting the last two years. No one has forgotten what they accomplished the last two seasons! Maybe that’s why fans are so frustrated with them because we’ve seen what they can do. It kind of makes it sound like they deserve a pass because of the last two seasons. There definitely is that groups of people who will never be happy no matter what the Phils do and like to spout garbage at will, but I think most of the fan frustration is because we know they’re better than this.

If I were making 5 million dollars for hitting .250 I’d keep my mouth shut and appreciate the 80+ consecutive sellouts, and the fans that are paying for them, rather than mouthing off about how they ought not express their frustration at us playing terrible baseball.

booing is part of the game would he rather play in Florida with 10,000 fans. 80+ straight sellouts and hes not happy with the fans, we pay good money to see a game. The problem is the expectations for this year were very high. Now the phils are only 3 games over 500. We expect better.

There are a lot of Phillie fan frontrunners. No question about it. I remember 16,000 being a good crowd at the Vet in the 90s. Now they are sold out. Wonder why?

Booing has become something of a Philly thing. I hate it. People boo when they are unhappy. They expect players to hit every AB and pitchers never to give up runs. This is just silly. But these are young men out there and the booing hurts them.

So people feel better to make them feel worse? And players who feel bad will do better? No. It is stupid and boorish. If you don’t like the team then don’t go to the game.

I think many Phillies fans that go to the ballpark are re-affirming people outside Philadelphia’s opinion on Philadelphia’s sports fans.

It’s frustrating to not see the team out in front but this doom and gloom attitude is clearly having an effect on the team who probably don’t feel supported. This win it all, every player has to dominate attitude has to stop because that’s the most damaging thing to a team trying to build a legacy. This isn’t the NBA where everything’s far more extreme and disposable than MLB.

What’s going to happen when Dom Brown comes up? Does he have to hit 30 home runs to not be chased out of town labelled as a bust? Does Aumont have to come up looking like a readymade Randy Johnson rather than just getting to the majors? Does Ryan Howard have to hit 25 homers before the all-star break for many of our fans will stop trashing him. Does Cole Hamels walk after his arbitration years because he’s considered to be grossly wasting his talent if he’s not a perennial Cy Young contender?

Jimmy and Shane are right and if their saying it, the rest of the clubhouse is thinking it…

Bottom line, sports is entertainment. It’s not very entertaining to show up at the park and watch your team lose and/or the players you count on to win underperform.

So, if the fans aren’t being entertained, they let Vic (and others on the team) know about it. I don’t see a big problem with this (unless personal threats are involved, which is never acceptable.)

Baseball isn’t some kind of group therapy session where players should be getting their validation even when they’re sucking on the field. If they want that, hire a sports therapist or give their moms a call.

you know what these players have to shut up. its our god given right to boo. we pay good money to go to these ball games. you can cheer when things are going well and boo when bad. fans have not been booing all season. it started a month or so. i have season tickets. yes, shane we have that right. when your making millions and lose with no heart. shows we care. shut up

The same fans complaining about Victorino today, are the same fans that cryed about Rollins a few years ago … even though both players are 100% right with what they said

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Look at the guys that have been out this year:
Rollins, Polanco, Utley, Ruiz, Blanton, Happ, Madson, Lidge, Romero, Durbin, etc..

How the hell can you have “swagger” when you’ve got Dobbs, Valdez, Sardinha, etc batting behind you … EVERY NIGHT .. .. when those guys are your “subs” that’s fine, but when your team is so banged up that these guys are starting for you, for multiple weeks … the regular players are probably walking around wonder “who’s next??”

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I like the responses of “It’s my right” … “I paid good money”

well then it’s their right to give us praise we cheer and make a positive-difference for a home field advantage. and it’s their right to say to the media, that they’re playing with a banged-up roster right now .. it would sure be nice to have our fans behind us no matter what .. we’re kinda treading water right now and could really use an extra boost at home

But.. “SEASON TICKET HOLDERS” should definitely boo … its not like this team has won anything lately

Thanks Don I will remember your comments at the next game. There is nothing wrong with booing your team. First off it does show we do care. You are not seeing a good product on the field and they are lacking heart right now. yes they have won the past few seasons. This is a new season. As long as you are not running on the field, there is nothing wrong with showing how you feel. Maybe if fans just stop showing then these players will stop getting paid 15 million a year.

So Jeff only cheers for our players when the hit over .280 …. yet claims not to be a frontrunner because he has season tickets

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This is the kinda thing that kept Free Agents away in years past, and looks like it will again

Players around the league look at our team and probably feel terrible for the guys in the clubhouse.. keeping the team over .500, and in definite striking distance for a playoff birth with all the injuries we have … but their fans boo them for losing to the 1st place Atlanta Braves

The biggest problem in Philadelphia right now is everyone expects to win every game, regardless of opponent, or our own health .. j^ck^sses like Jeff give us all a bad name and make us look like spoiled little btches

How much do you really expect them to win without Utley, Polanco, and Ruiz right now ??

the first two guys are supposed to be the two best hitters on the team… but you’re going to boo, because you don’t know dck about baseball, and you’d rather just agree with all the new fans on 610-WIP and pretend you know what you’re talking about ..

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I seriously think that anyone booing the Phillies right now should have their fan card revoked

I’ve said it before; I don’t think the Phila fans are honestly any worse than fans anywhere else, EXCEPT that they managed to stick with a team that went a loooong time w/o winning at all. They boo, they cheer, and this new ballpark is selling out b/c of a lot of frontrunners, there’s no doubt about it. I don’t like them anymore than other people who’ve been fans since childhood. They do the wave, for the love of God. I mean …. don’t, just do NOT.

I feel exactly as Chuck does about this article. I’m not Shane’s biggest fan but I don’t blame his frustration regarding this issue. We’re all frustrated and we aren’t players! Did he lash out b/c the reporters are in their faces while they’re standing in the clubhouse with towels wrapped around them after a shower? Yeah, he probably did. Should he have restrained himself a bit, maybe tempered his answer? Yeah, he probably should have. But he’s not a politician, he’s a CF’er for the Phila Phillies. He’s also the only guy on the team who is known to be slightly volatile, a bit emotional, and kind of funny b/c of that trait. THAT is probably exactly why the writers went after him about this topic. They have a funny way of doing that.

Hey, personally, I don’t give a good god damn about hurting a players feelings. NJ – Are you serious? Philly fans KNOW that not getting a runner in from third with no outs is inexcusable. Philly fans KNOW that swinging wildly at first pitch breaking balls is stupid. Philly fans boo. Its in our blood. But we don’t boo without a reason. Stupidity and poor effort are the top two reasons to get booed in Philadelphia, no matter what the team. Victorino, while blessed with a wealth of talent, can play like a bonehead. Hey Shane, why not draw some walks, move some runners, or bunt? Despite being very fast you do none of them. So, you think that While Ted Williams and Babe Ruth can get booed but you can’t. You get paid a zillion dollars a year to play a game. You need a reality check. Wanna come to the office with me tomorrow? If booing hurts your feelings then play better.

I don’t think enough people are booing. You used to be able to hear the boos on tv…I hear very little boos now. There’s too many fans who just started following the team in 08 and sit there with a frozen smile on their face thinking, “I’m at the Phillies game…yeah.” They have no idea what’s going on and don’t even pay attention. We can argue over whether booing shows you care or not, but one thing we can’t argue is that it’s our right to boo! My tickets are $41 a piece and if i want to holler some things to motivate the players or boo, i’m allowed. Baseball is entertainment.

It hurts my feelings too when I do a bad job in the office and my boss tells me so. 🙁 He should stop doing that and just remember the times I did things well and not give me any crap about doing a bad job from time to time.

That just really hurts my feelings and makes me want to cry. I should be supported and told I’m trying my best regardless of what kind of job I do.

I think the opposite of this: “There’s too many fans who just started following the team in 08 and sit there with a frozen smile on their face thinking, “I’m at the Phillies game…yeah.” ”

… I think its these new fans who go to tailgate at 3:00, have no idea how baseball really works .. but expect to see the Phillies win every game, and they BOOOOOOO if they don’t see a win that night

most of the people in that stadium wouldn’t be able to tell you which teams lead the other divisions in baseball, or which players are having great years .. they just know that Cliff Lee was on the team last year, and that “some dude Brown” is going to somehow be the greatest player of all time

I think every player in the MLB didn’t want to play for the Phillies for years and years cuz they sucked. Kinda like how nobody wants to play for the Pirates or the Royals now. Not because the fans are boo birds but because they stink with little hope of getting better anytime soon.

Glad someone cares. He should be more brutal.
He didnt take the wuss way out by saying he wished the season was over he fired back at the fans. I support Shane.
While at the same time pointing out that hes sucked at the plate lately.

with almost half the team having been on the DL at some point the Phillies are only 3 games out of the wilcard for the worst case scenario…

If you expecting your team to win every game move to Indy to watch the Colts or Miami to watch the new Heat…

The Phillies are perfectly positioned, the mets and braves have played much of their best baseball and the Phillies haven’t… Yet the Werthless’s, the get out of town Cole, the Moyers no good cause we should have a baseball america top 10 prospect should really stop watching this team and stick to their playstations… It’s nauseating when you come onto a really good site that gets overtaken by a maddenesque view of baseball as if it can be run like a fantasy team.

True Heather. But the fans always booed and the sports writers were, um, tougher than other cities. They’ve never been hometown rah rahs. My Dad is an older guy, (was much older when I was born) and he has stories that make me laugh and make him cringe. Phila has always had a rep for being a difficult place to play sports. Maybe there’s someone else here who knows somebody older who can back this up?

As a fan who pays good money to buy tickets, merchandise, etc, etc……..I have the right to boo if I want….as do all fans. I have no yet, but i am EXTREMELY frustrated. victorino needs to shut up, play, and let actions speak louder than words

Omg constantly on their iPhones & Droids & Blackberrys, it makes me nuts. Everybody is the president of the United States now. SO important. Every communication is the end of the world, ‘just let me finish this….’ But they can find a sec to do that freakin wave, can’t they.

Uhm, people go to the ballpark to be entertained, not to act as a group support session for the ballplayers regardless of how the team is playing. If people aren’t entertained, they boo. The easiest way to entertain fans is to win.

“But what he said was correct. A lot of these fans are frontrunners and should be ashamed of themselves.”

Yes because the only folks we really want at the ballpark spending money is the 10,000 or so “real” fans. Who cares about the revenue loss and the susequent dropping of the payroll. All the real fans can then get behind our 65 win team with its $50 mil payroll.

you boo when your team is so off the pace their just taking the field to chew up the season not when your 3 games out of a playoff place… Fans in places like Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cleveland must be laughing at the way so many Phils fans treat the team expecting them to pass the 100 win mark in a bad season…

FWIW, I’m not saying it’s “nice” for people to catcall, but it’s been happening forever and if our ballplayers are really that thin skinned, then I think they have bigger problems than a couple of boo birds.

Booing is childish, it’s just like a little kid crying and whining to get attention, and it does NOTHING to improve the way a team/individual plays. If anything, it makes things worse, and Shane had every right to say what he did. It’s a symptom of today’s society, kids expecting everything to go their way all the time….I WANT IT NOW …wha, wah, wah…..

I resent the fact that Shane’s comments have been chopped down to one paragraph when he actually said more. What he said was basically that he felt that fans had given up on the team already, and that’s really what irked him more than anything.

In my opinion, leaving out Victorino’s more solid remarks is unfair, it is short-sighted, and it is the definition of not just “frontrunner,” but of “selfish @sshole.”

man its the unfortunate side effect of having a decent time. ever since i was a kid in 96 and i started watching the phillies, they sucked! but it didnt matter its the team you love.
who cares how much they are getting paid you still gotta show your love and support. i dont care if the phils dont make the playoffs this season that wont make me any less of a fan. heck maybe it will turn some fans off the team which wont make me upset in the slightest. the atmosphere isnt what it used to be. now phillies games have so many wealthy fans who just come for the principle of seeing a winner or biased homers who only can think back as far back at 08, maybe 07 if theyre lucky. Yeah, I know everyone isn’t like that but more and more the fanbase turns for the worse.
Hear me out, I love philly and its fans but the attitude is bs

I agreed with Jimmy Rollins when he said it and I agree even more with Shane Victorino now.

We don’t need jerks like that taking up seats in CBP when some of us can barely find standing room tickets. Don’t like what you see? STAY THE FRAK HOME and let the true fans enjoy the game of baseball and their team in peace.

Eff the frontrunners. Most of those losers probably attended their first games in 2007.

Go, Shane! Just because they’re paying to see you play doesn’t mean you have to put up with their abuse in the middle of the game while you’re trying to do your job!

The sporting establishment (players, owners, sponsors, media, etc) want fans to treat their product like a religion. They love poor souls like branderson above. They want faith (our money and praise) through thick and thin. I’m sorry establishment – you are nothing more than extremely well-paid entertainers who get paid to produce. If a movie sucks then I say so and don’t bother spending my money even if my favorite star is in it. If you want adoration then produce. Otherwise suck it up and take abuse (or in the worst case from your pocketbook’s standpoint – our total lack of attention) like a professional entertainer should. Or find another line of work like the ministry.

What will all these fans say when a trade is made and who will it be that is gone? Why? the entire team slumps and it’s not the first time, but it is worse now than ever before. Something is missing here and bothering the team as a whole, some of it has to do with contracts that were awarded during the off-season, now who can that be??????

yes, I know baseball like all professional sports is a business. but I don’t think being a fan of a team should make you treat the game like its a business. how can fans be so short-sighted with regards to Victorino. Do they not remember how much he was loved. Players slump, it’s natural. Look at Cole last year, Utley pre-injury this year. Fans need to grow up, but it’s tough when you’ve only been watching since the Phillies won a WS